EPTThe only thing I see that sets Blizzard apart from the crowd is they're very chatty about their projects, they currently stick to a small number of franchies and when they do finally release something, it quickly sells in the millions.
On Video Games and Making Money - Page 4
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Bibdy
United States3481 Posts
The only thing I see that sets Blizzard apart from the crowd is they're very chatty about their projects, they currently stick to a small number of franchies and when they do finally release something, it quickly sells in the millions. | ||
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STS17
United States1817 Posts
On July 22 2010 01:07 Necrosjef wrote: I assume it is you who is in game development. Answer me this question then. Would you have done that subject is you had the grades to be lets say a Doctor. Well, let's see shall we? I've been a straight-A student from first grade all the way through my high school graduation. That trend has continued through my past two years at college. So, yes, I do have the grades to be a Doctor but I choose a different path. And, as that is a quote from my OP, yes it would be safe for you to assume that I am in game development. Reading the OP would have told you that. | ||
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SugarBear
United States842 Posts
On July 22 2010 01:05 Necrosjef wrote: I don't really look at it in terms of quality of games. I look at it in terms of quality of software. Games Blizzard makes the most quality games, don't think anyone would argue about that. But compare them to a reputable software manufacturer like ANSYS or IBM for example and you can very quickly see the difference in quality and customer support between the two companies. What I would like to see is the same care and attention that is spent on things like CAD packages and other design and analysis programs spent on designing games and game companies actually delivering really really good quality stuff that no one complains about. Will never happen, simply because games make no one money, so it's not nearly as important to provide the same level of reliability and service as software sold to businesses for productivity. | ||
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STS17
United States1817 Posts
On July 22 2010 02:32 SugarBear wrote: Will never happen, simply because games make no one money, so it's not nearly as important to provide the same level of reliability and service as software sold to businesses for productivity. More or less, video games don't have nearly the lifespan of those products either. Spending the resources to set-up that kind of infrastructure is simply impractical. For a game like WoW, it should be done since it is such a massive success but they don't really care about the players who have a brain stem so it hardly matters | ||
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Necrosjef
United Kingdom530 Posts
On July 22 2010 02:23 STS17 wrote: Well, let's see shall we? I've been a straight-A student from first grade all the way through my high school graduation. That trend has continued through my past two years at college. So, yes, I do have the grades to be a Doctor but I choose a different path. And, as that is a quote from my OP, yes it would be safe for you to assume that I am in game development. Reading the OP would have told you that. Sucks to be you bro. You should have been a doctor. Good luck getting a job when you finish college. | ||
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Williowa
129 Posts
Seriously? You gave me 8 ounces of soda mixed with water for $1.50, then have the nerve to charge me for the relatively appropriate amount of soda I'll drink during my meal. I know you got that soda out of a fountain, not a pop can or bottle, you're just RIPPING ME OFF. So why contribute to that, when you have a very loyal fanbase. Why not just feed them on "this is the best place for you to spend your money, because we want to be the best of all our competitors". | ||
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Santriell
Belgium151 Posts
On July 21 2010 00:16 Zaru wrote: I sure wonder how Valve does it, then. Valve, at its core, does not produce ONLY games. Kind of like EPIC isn't only making unreal tournament. Companies like theirs make a hundred times what a best-selling game *might* sell by renting/loaning/selling their engines to game making companies. For instance, depending on contract, EPIC will sell the UEngine3 right to a certain company for X (usually around 5M$) or get a percentage of the selling price if its a smaller company (renting). Multiply 5 millions (bare minimum) by the number of games made on the Unreal Engine 3 (including 360/PS3 SDKs) and you get a pretty clear picture of how gaming sales do not matter AT ALL to them. + Show Spoiler + Unreal Development Kit (UDK) While the Unreal Engine 3 has been quite open for modders to tinker around with, the ability to publish and sell games made using UE3 was restricted to licensees of the engine. However, on November 2009, Epic released a free version of their engine, called the Unreal Developer Kit (UDK) that is available to the general public. According to the current EULA, game makers can sell their games by paying Epic the cost of $99 USD at the outset, and 25% of all revenue above $5000 USD. Plus valve and company are not "master server" friendly. When a game is released its up to the players to host their servers. | ||
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STS17
United States1817 Posts
On July 22 2010 02:43 Necrosjef wrote: Sucks to be you bro. You should have been a doctor. Good luck getting a job when you finish college. Why do you say that? Because I would be handed a job upon graduation of medical school? Life's not about money man. Nor am I worried about having a job when I graduate | ||
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Necrosjef
United Kingdom530 Posts
As you get older you will realize how wrong you are. | ||
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dcberkeley
Canada844 Posts
Many people won’t buy a game that only offers a few hours of single player with nothing else This is so wrong. People are more likely to buy short one-time hits than back then. Whereas you had games for the PC and SNES that lasted forever, there are mostly 20 hour FPS's out now. And sure, Valve does make money, but saying that Alien Swarm was done for the money is stupid. Yes, there will be more people using Steam, but they could've easily charged money for it and made way more. Valve just happens to be making money while still respecting gamers because they are still gamers themselves. | ||
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Vimsey
United Kingdom2235 Posts
On July 22 2010 02:46 Santriell wrote: Valve, at its core, does not produce ONLY games. Kind of like EPIC isn't only making unreal tournament. Plus valve and company are not "master server" friendly. When a game is released its up to the players to host their servers. True but Valve behaved this way before Steams profits kicked in. In fact it was this very philosophy that lead to Steam being developed and invested in in the first place. So that they could cheaply provide updates, more content and support online. Many of us prefer not to have "friendly master servers" its why TF2, L4D, Counter Strike etc can be played at LANs and I can play a game against a player anywhere in the world as long as I dont mind taking the hit on my ping. The people that run the servers in any case end up being communities like Team Liquid, ESL, GOMTV etc etc so it doesnt cost the individual any more. Its also more supportive to gaming communities people come back to them for long periods of time and often for more than one game and its a breeding ground for good modding too which is kind of Valves not so secret weapon they continually recruit from modders, the latest being revealed as Black Cat who wrote Alien Swarm. | ||
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STS17
United States1817 Posts
On July 22 2010 03:34 Necrosjef wrote: As you get older you will realize how wrong you are. I doubt that. Money is not but a medium of exchange. It replaced bartering when the distances between people began to grow and transporting goods and livestock became impractical. I pity those who view money as the object of desire. There was a farmer near my home who died less than a year ago. He owned a construction company responsible for building my entire town and most of the neighboring ones as well. He was a multi-millionaire. Yet he chose to work 4am-dark every day growing hay and tending to cows because that made him happy. He never spent his money (most of which went to charities) because it was useless to him. Would you tell him that life was all about money or that he was wrong to think otherwise? | ||
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drgoats
United States310 Posts
On July 22 2010 00:20 Necrosjef wrote: Blizzard are making somewhere in the region of $150mil per month in WoW subs. They have also posted profits of $500mil (roughly) in the last 12 months. That sort of gives a bit of an indication how much of WoW subs are actually profit. (500mil in profit is more than all other game companies combined minus EA from 1 game.) Total income from WoW per year = $1.8bil SC2 is never going to make as much money as WoW. Even if SC2 sold 20mil copies in the first 6 months it would only equal the income from WoW in those 6 months. After the SC2 sales stop coming in then WoW goes into making more money than SC2 in month 7. WoW is a HUGE cash generator, most of the money made from it goes back into WoW upkeep, expansions etc. or into profits, almost none of the money made from WoW goes into other products because they simply aren't as profitable as WoW and there is no point in investing say $1bil in SC2 if you won't make the cash back. I agree with this poster. In fact, the financial statements of Activision/Blizzard do as well. Last year they did about 1.2 billion in subscription, licensing, and other revenue. The costs related to those sales was somewhere in the 800 million range. That did not include any costs for development and advertising because they lump those costs into one category and not game specific. | ||
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LunarC
United States1186 Posts
It seems like American companies are too focused on making money in the most efficient way possible to fully craft their games into experiences. | ||
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snehasharaf
1 Post
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JimmyJRaynor
Canada17411 Posts
On July 22 2010 04:30 LunarC wrote: The best business model for the gaming industry, I think, can be taken from Nintendo. They focus on the core, initial experience of the game instead of trying to lengthen playtime as much as possible by tacking on DLC. There's a reason why I still love The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Paper Mario and am willing to buy them for the 3DS when it's released. It seems like American companies are too focused on making money in the most efficient way possible to fully craft their games into experiences. What is this guy thinking? What a moron! Nintendo is garbage and they'll be out of business by 2015.  | ||
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